1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to body structures of stringed instruments, and in particular to body structures of electric stringed instruments such as electric guitars having solid bodies.
This application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-267756, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that electric stringed instruments such as electric guitars have solid bodies in which a plurality of wooden sheets are adhered together to form prescribed planar shapes. However, solid bodies of electric guitars have relatively heavy weight compared with hollow bodies of acoustic guitars; hence, they may cause physically heavy burden for players who play guitars.
In order to reduce the weight of a guitar body, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. S63-170696 discloses an example of a body structure of an electric stringed instrument that uses light wooden members for prescribed parts. This body structure is designed such that plural types of wooden materials are adhered together in the same plane so as to form a single body block, which is then subjected to cutting at the outer periphery thereof and is thus transformed into a prescribed shape. In the body block, mahogany is used in the center portion in which strings are stretched under tension, while balsa and mahogany are used in the peripheral portion. This may achieve satisfactory strength in prescribed parts of the body while reducing the overall weight of the body to some extent.
The aforementioned body structure uses body blocks, in which plural types of wooden materials are adhered together, as constituent materials of a body of an electric stringed instrument. This requires a primary step for forming wooden materials into a prescribed shape, and a secondary step for adhering blocks together. For this reason, the aforementioned body structure merely results in complication of manufacturing.
In the aforementioned body structure, mahogany (i.e., hard wooden material) is used in the center portion for arranging pickups and the peripheral portion of a body. That is, relatively heavy wooden material such as mahogany is used in the center portion and peripheral portion of a body; hence, it is difficult to reduce the overall weight of the body.
Manufacturers may generally consider that overall weight of wooden manufactured products can be reduced by using wooden materials having low specific gravity or low weight. However, this may lead to another problem in that wooden materials having low specific gravity or low weight are reduced in strength or hardness. In other words, the demand for reducing weight conflicts with the demand for securing satisfactory strength through hardening. Therefore, it is strongly demanded for manufacturer to develop a body structure of a stringed instrument that satisfies both of the aforementioned demands.